Monday, November 24, 2014

As the weather started getting cooler this month, we found ourselves snuggled up under balnkets more.

We visited the NC State Fair and had a blast. Paxton loved riding rides.

Paxton re-discovered his love of Starbucks.

We spent lots of time outside...

Hiking,

Playing at the park,

Hanging out at the science museum,

And having picnics in the driveway.

We celebrated Halloween for an entire week starting with a Trunk or Treat,

Then a pumpkin patch,

Painting pumpkins,

And trick or treating!

I think Halloween was Paxton's favorite part of the year. He loved trick or treating and the pumpkin patch. He loved dressing up like Mickey. He loved the candy. He asks almost every day when it will be Halloween again.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Last Friday was day 2 of Jared's 5-day trip to Oklahoma and the boys and I were already stir-crazy. I asked Paxton if he wanted to go to the park or the science museum and he picked the science museum.

Since it's starting to cool off here, we wanted to take advantage of the outside parts as much as we could so we looked at the farm animals, and then went to Paxton's favorite outdoor exhibit, the lead conveyer belt.

We also checked out the sailboats.

By then, it was time for lunch. After naps, the boys and I met our friends Kristine, Noah and Nate at Pullen Park to celebrate Nate's fourth birthday.

Paxton hopped up next to Nate on the train so we let them ride together. They thought they were so big.

Then we did the boats.

And then the merry-go-round. We rode this last time we came and Paxton rode a horse. The horse went up and down and the carousel spins really fast so he hated it. This time we opted for the stability of the bench.

It was much better.

Hey, everybody look somewhere besides the camera!

Porter and Noah are only about a week apart and are both awesome talkers.

We had a blast. As it started getting dark, it also started getting cold so we headed to Paxton's favorite restaurant for dinner.

We wrapped the night up by all snugging in bed together in our pajamas with popcorn while we watched Frozen. It was a pretty awesome Friday.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Ever since we moved out here, we have heard so much about how awesome Asheville is. It has been on our bucket list the whole time we've been here and when Jared had to go to a conference in Asheville, we knew our opportunity had come! We left the day before his conference (Sunday) as soon as the boys woke up.

(Side note: NC is beautiful in the fall. A phone picture through a car window in a moving car can't capture it...but trust me!)

We got to Asheville at lunch time and ate at Happy Jack's, which was a breakfast place. We are a family of breakfast food lovers so we were happy...except for the part where they're known for their biscuits and gravy and when we were ordering the waitress said "pancakes or biscuits and gravy?" And we picked biscuits and gravy and she said "we're out of biscuits, how 'bout toast and gravy?" Obviously we had pancakes...

After lunch, Jared wanted to drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway and show me the scene of his motorcycle incident that happened when he was 16 (that he has never told his mom about). The Parkway was closed about 10 miles in because they had snow the day before. We stopped at the visitors center and found a trail through the forest. It was breathtaking!

It was really cold and there was still snow on the ground! (Obviously Porter could use a new cold weather outfit this year since his snowsuit is skin-tight and Capri-length.)

We walked around and the boys played in the snow and chased each other around. A jogger offered to take a family picture...

...our boys look like twins but Paxton is really a lot bigger than Porter (except in the head area).

Once we were sufficiently frozen, we headed back to what we thought was the heated, indoor hotel pool.

It was, in fact, one of those pools that is half indoor and half outdoor and you swim under the glass partition to get to the outdoor part. In this situation the partition was in no way sealed so the heated pool was connected to the outdoor pool (where it was 30 degrees and snowy!) so we didn't stay long...

We gave the boys a warm bath and went to eat at Fuddrucker's. Jared and I both have a strange obsession with this place and eat at them whenever we have a chance. Paxton liked the bear...

Since the boys hadn't had naps, we headed back for an early bedtime which of course meant an early morning the next day. There was a Cracker Barrell next door to the hotel and ever since I bought Paxton a dump truck at the CB in Columbia, he freaks out every time he sees one. So we went.

Then, since we had so much fun the day before, we decided to go back to the Blue Ridge Parkway and drive the other way. We made it about two miles this time before we got to the closed part. This time, there were cars parked at the barrier and people were just walking up and down the blocked off part. We thought that was too cool to pass up so we joined them.

I couldn't get over the fact that we were WALKING down the middle of a highway!

Paxton got to throw snowballs...

...which Porter tried to copy but was sidetracked by eating his snowball...

Paxton said his hands were cold after throwing 634 snowballs so Jared showed him how to put his hands in his pockets which he thought was the bee's knees.

He borrowed Daddy's sunglasses and seriously thought he was the coolest thing east of the Mississippi.

This partition was Jared's favorite part of the whole day because we had to duck under it...

...so Porter thought he had to duck too even though he cleared it by several inches.

Jared said Paxton could pick out one souvenir...

We stopped for a quick lunch, then Jared had to get to his conference. The boys and I went to a play place.

Porter was asleep when we got there and didn't wake up even after paying and getting Paxton's shoes off so Pax got to play alone for awhile.

Then Porter woke up and joined in.

They had a blast and were not ready to go when it was time to pick Jared up.

We stopped for dinner at the same Burger King we stopped at the first time we drove out here. It happened to be the spot where I might have had a little break down about the drive and the fact that we had just moved across the U.S. This time there was no break down and we made it home safely!